Tuesday, August 08, 2017

Otah and Har Cheong Gai Burgers

For B and G's farewell meals, they declared they wanted all-things local, and to bring on the spices. They're doing intimate chats over many meals with the various small groups of friends. They've become quite enamored with sambal belachan, and could cook it. But they're homebound to a city where they might not get ingredients easily to fry up a decent version. They've extracted promises from all of us to send them bottles of sambal belachan regularly. Hahahaha.

We've taken them out to a good Peranakan dinner where we ate so much that we dropped straight into a food coma, scrapping earlier plans to adjourn for alcohol after. Today, we headed to redpanfor a casual brunch, and to our credit, didn't over-order.

Ordered its signature 220g ribeye chinchalok steak to share. It came done medium rather than medium-rare as requested. But that's how it is in Singapore. I control the done-ness by asking for medium-rare because very few restaurants can do it. It always arrives at best, medium with a good-enough pink center. Imagine if I asked for medium, and it comes done medium-well. I'd be rather miffed.

We swung in to redpan for its burgers, mainly. It's the patties we were curious about- Singaporean versions. For August, redpan offers a crispy otah fish burger(fish and prawn paste) and har cheong gai burger (chicken deep fried in a batter of fermented prawn or shrimp paste). The buns were house-made and toasted nicely. Each came with a side of decent slaw and fries. No sharing. Heh. Since we were still in a local restaurant, there was chilli sauce available to go with the burgers. I really liked my crispy otah fish patty with spicy mayonnaise. Delicious! Apparently, these burgers will remain on the menu after this month.

Notion

“A large, but not particularly impressive, book. Other books in the University's libraries had covers inlaid with rare jewels and fascinating wood, or bound with dragon skin. This one was just a rather tatty leather. It looked the sort of book described in library catalogues as 'slightly foxed', although it would be more honest to admit that it looked as though it had been badgered, wolved and possibly beared as well.
Metal clasps held it shut. They weren't decorated, they were just very heavy – like the chain, which didn't so much attach the book to the lectern as tether it.
They looked like the work of someone who had a pretty definite aim in mind, and who had spent most of his life making training harness for elephants.” ~ The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett